Edward Sterling had now just entered on his thirty-fourth year;and was already a man experienced in fortunes and changes.A native of Waterford in Munster,as already mentioned;born in the "Deanery House of Waterford,27th February,1773,"say the registers.For his Father,as we learn,resided in the Deanery House,though he was not himself Dean,but only "Curate of the Cathedral"(whatever that may mean);he was withal rector of two other livings,and the Dean's friend,--friend indeed of the Dean's kinsmen the Beresfords generally;whose grand house of Curraghmore,near by Waterford,was a familiar haunt of his and his children's.This reverend gentleman,along with his three livings and high acquaintanceships,had inherited political connections;--inherited especially a Government Pension,with survivorship for still one life beyond his own;his father having been Clerk of the Irish House of Commons at the time of the Union,of which office the lost salary was compensated in this way.The Pension was of two hundred pounds;and only expired with the life of Edward,John's Father,in 1847.There were,and still are,daughters of the family;but Edward was the only son;--descended,too,from the Scottish hero Wallace,as the old gentleman would sometimes admonish him;his own wife,Edward's mother,being of that name,and boasting herself,as most Scotch Wallaces do,to have that blood in her veins.
This Edward had picked up,at Waterford,and among the young Beresfords of Curraghmore and elsewhere,a thoroughly Irish form of character:fire and fervor,vitality of all kinds,in genial abundance;but in a much more loquacious,ostentatious,much _louder_style than is freely patronized on this side of the Channel.Of Irish accent in speech he had entirely divested himself,so as not to be traced by any vestige in that respect;but his Irish accent of character,in all manner of other more important respects,was very recognizable.An impetuous man,full of real energy,and immensely conscious of the same;who transacted everything not with the minimum of fuss and noise,but with the maximum:a very Captain Whirlwind,as one was tempted to call him.
In youth,he had studied at Trinity College,Dublin;visited the Inns of Court here,and trained himself for the Irish Bar.To the Bar he had been duly called,and was waiting for the results,--when,in his twenty-fifth year,the Irish Rebellion broke out;whereupon the Irish Barristers decided to raise a corps of loyal Volunteers,and a complete change introduced itself into Edward Sterling's way of life.
For,naturally,he had joined the array of Volunteers;--fought,I have heard,"in three actions with the rebels"(Vinegar Hill,for one);and doubtless fought well:but in the mess-rooms,among the young military and civil officials,with all of whom he was a favorite,he had acquired a taste for soldier life,and perhaps high hopes of succeeding in it:at all events,having a commission in the Lancashire Militia offered him,he accepted that;altogether quitted the Bar,and became Captain Sterling thenceforth.From the Militia,it appears,he had volunteered with his Company into the Line;and,under some disappointments,and official delays of expected promotion,was continuing to serve as Captain there,"Captain of the Eighth Battalion of Reserve,"say the Military Almanacs of 1803,--in which year the quarters happened to be Derry,where new events awaited him.
At a ball in Derry he met with Miss Hester Coningham,the queen of the scene,and of the fair world in Derry at that time.